Blondies get a boozy make-over with bourbon, brown butter and pecans!

Ahhh…the week-end. My week-end started off a little rocky. Last night, I was lying in bed, 95% asleep, when suddenly a random thought passed into my brain: ‘did I turn off the hot plate at work?’. Just like that, I was wide awake, and there was no way that sleep would be coming to me unless I dragged my butt back to work to check on the hot plate. I work in a lab at the University and so leaving a hot plate on in a lab full of flammable chemicals, all sorts of bad scenarios were running through my mind! So I pulled on some yoga pants and my coat, and dragged myself back to work. At midnight. On Friday. And the hot plate wasn’t on.

Soooo. Today is off to a much better start, thanks in part to these these babies…they have two of my favorite ingredients, brown butter, and bourbon. Also toasted pecans! How could these not taste amazing?

The first batch I made of these were OK. Just OK. I knew they could be so much more…they needed to be more moist, and more importantly, they needed MORE BOOZE. So I cranked up the booze factor, and added a little more butter, and voila!

These blondies have a great nutty flavor, from the combination of brown butter and pecans, and they have a great bourbon flavor! Not too boozy, although I was a little worried at first because of the smell in my kitchen…very bourbony. But when you take a bite of these blondies (as you can see from the photo above I couldn’t wait till after photographing them), they are just bourbony enough.

Blondies are kicked up a notch with bourbon and brown butter. These guys are boozy, nutty and delicious!

Recipe type: Dessert

Serves: 12

Ingredients

½ cup +2 TBSP unsalted butter

1 cup light brown sugar (packed)

¼ cup bourbon

1 egg

1 cup all purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup pecan pieces

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350 F

Coarsely chop the pecans and arrange on a baking sheet. Bake for 3-5 minutes until lightly toasted. Set aside and cool.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Cook butter, stirring frequently (swirling the pot also works well), until a deep golden color develops. There will be little bits and pieces in the butter that will turn brown, but make sure they don't burn!! The butter should take on a nutty sort of flavor, and this should take around 7-8 minutes. Immediately pour brown butter into a heat-proof mixing bowl, scraping all the bits into the bowl.

Add the brown sugar to the butter and mix well. Add the egg and bourbon and mix. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add into the butter mixture and mix well. Stir in the toasted pecans.

Spray an 8 X 8" baking pan with non-stick spray. Pour the batter into the pan, spreading evenly. Bake at 350 F for 20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. These are good undercooked slightly, so I recommend erring on the side of less-cooked.

I love browned butter, I think EVERYTHING is better with it! The bourbon works really well the blondies…although I was worried at first that I put too much in, the taste wasn’t too strong in the end. Thanks for you comment, Laura!